If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)

"If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)" is a song made famous by the country music band Alabama. The song was released in 1984 as the third single from the band's fifth album, Roll On, and became the group's 14th straight No. 1 single on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart that October.

During the first weeks "If You're Gonna Play in Texas..." was on the Billboard chart, the song's flip side, "I'm Not That Way Anymore" was listed as a tag-along "B-side" since the B-side had an accompanying music video that aired on CMT.

[edit] Single and album edit differences

The single edit was more than a minute shorter than the original album version. Two features were deleted from the single version:

The opening fanfare, featuring Alabama's vocalists — accompanied by just a piano — singing a few bars of "The Eyes of Texas." This introduction leads into the single's opening, which suddenly picks up the tempo to 3/4-time.
A second repeat of the refrain, the first part a capella, before the fiddle-led bridge leading to the last part of the song.

The version that appears on the band's Greatest Hits Vol. III album excises the intro but retains the extra refrain.

[edit] References

Morris, Edward, "Alabama," Contemporary Books Inc., Chicago, 1985 (ISBN 0809253062)
Roland, Tom, "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits" (Billboard Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1991 (ISBN 0-82-307553-2))
Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.

Preceded by "I Don't Know a Thing About Love (The Moon Song)" by Conway Twitty	Billboard Hot Country Singles number one single by Alabama October 27, 1984	Succeeded by "City of New Orleans" by Willie Nelson